Tea and Reflection
by AetherPaw
Summary: A short one-shot in which Renamon reflects on the aftermath of her return to the real world after Doodlebug. Perhaps the consequences of the point of no return is less final then some might think.


Really short drabble I came up with after thinking of something to try and get me un-burned-out on my other project. Just Renamon reflecting on on her life in my version of fanon, and how sometimes the consequences _can_ be denied, even if the action might not. Not entirely sure if I'm using the turn of phrase to get things across, but hey!

I dunno, I might elaborate of the world later if people like this.

I don't own the Digimon Tamers IP

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><p>The consequences of the point of no return are often less final then some might imply, Renamon reflected while harming her hands on a mug of green tea.<p>

It was about a year and a half since Takato had discovered the gate and returned the digimon home. The vulpine couldn't fathom as to _how_ he found it, but imagine her surprise when the goggle headed boy had trotted right into the wooded area she had claimed for herself. She never asked how he had found her, nor had she frankly cared at the time. All that mattered was that she got to return to her partner.

Her friend.

Her, and she had to smile at this, literal other half.

Once she had walked through that gate though, it was as unlike old times as could be. Not that any of it was a bad thing.

She was fully a member of the Nonaka household now for one, and got her own room and sleeping mat. She helped with the cooking, and cleaning, she picked up on the occasion that a mess was made, and was expected to give her opinion of clothing. She had to keep out of sight while out of the house of course, she didn't want to cause public panic after all, but while in the Nonaka house she may as well have been just one more human.

For another, she now had a job. Yamaki had made a point of hiring on all of the digimon in some capacity, and paid according wages. Guilmon was working on expanding the new Hypnos complex underground. Terriermon was helping with the electrical in the places that humans couldn't fit. While Renamon herself was doing duel duty, working with Beelzemon training the staff in self-defence staff on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays and teaching about digimon and the digital world for the other days of the work week. She had just gotten home from the training room. Rena didn't know what projects the others worked on.

Yamaki was also kind enough to provide a runner to go out and buy whatever it was the digimon desired for them as well. While much of the income of the other digimon was spent on surgery confection, Renamon had built herself a wonderful collection of tea, and a library of books. Occasionally she would indulge herself with a new punching bag, or a plushy.

Rika had surprised her on the anniversary of their partnering with a sakuyamon stuffy from one of the gift shops in the decimated Shinjuku district, and the fox had been collecting the cuddly facsimiles ever since. Rika thought it was cute, and occasionally poked fun at her for it, usually with another plush toy in tow. Renamon thought her tamer should keep her comments to herself, but felt that the stuffed toy more than made up for things. She was up to around thirty different ones now, with a few copies here and there.

Just about the only thing that was the same about her new life compared to her pre Project Doodlebug life, was that she still went out patrolling with Rika nightly. They never did find anything, but it was comforting to go and look. It was a familiar habit that they both privately suspected would follow them until the day they died. Rika's mother had stopped objecting after the third week straight.

The thought of Doodlebug returned her to her initial train of thought.

Project Doodlebug was designed to separate the digital and real worlds from each other completely, and eternally. Now the fox wasn't so jaded that she thought that the separation would truly last forever, yet she didn't expect it to fail so soon. If she wanted to be honest, she truly didn't think that it truly had. If it had than no doubt that her patrols would have borne significantly more fruit. Yet if it had not failed, how was she sitting in the Nonaka dining area on a bitterly cold afternoon while savoring this exotic green tea? Shouldn't she be perched in some tree in the digital world, thankful that she survived another day?

The curious thing was that once Yamaki went to investigate that gate, it was nowhere to be found. There wasn't even any indication there had _been_ a gate there in the first place, nothing in Hypnos' logs, the groundskeeper hadn't seen or heard anything odd. The only proof that there was ever a gate in the first place was the nine digimon that now existed in the real world.

Doodlebug represented the point of no return, the crossing of the Rubicon, _alea iacta est_. It was the do or die decision that, while the consequences hurt worse than any physical agony, was inevitably the correct one. And yet… here she was. She could wax on metaphorical all day, but the point is that she had come back, after the way home had been shut.

She shook her head. How _had_ Takato done it? He was no genius hacker, he didn't have juggernaut rip a hole between the worlds. Maybe it was another miracle, like the creation of Guilmon. Maybe it was something deep within him that ripped a new way, yet patched it after his return. Maybe it was a by-product of biomerging, maybe a little piece of the digimon caught up in the tamer- but that didn't explain lopmon, or guardromon, or marineangemon.

Did it matter? A stray thought floated through her mind. She was home, and doodlebug wasn't stealing her away. Let the damaging consequences be undone as if they never happened. None of the specifics mattered. All that mattered was that she was home, with her tamer.

She took a sip of her tea, and looked up as she heard the door shut. Speak of the devil.

"Have a good day at school Rika?" The vulpine already knew the answer. Irritation, anger, and sadness flooded through the bond they shared, but the wordless conversations they had made the elder Nonakas' nervous. Thus they kept up the habit of merely speaking.

Rika for one, made a face. "We 'learned' –and I use that word tentatively- about the D-Reaper. I spent the day arguing with the teacher on every point. Every. Single. Point."

There was nothing else to say on that subject, and Rika put her backpack in the corner where it would be ready for her to grab again tomorrow.

Renamon just quietly enjoyed her tea. None of the reasons that she was here mattered. That she was here did.


End file.
